Plan B Forum

MajGenlMeade has an avatar that looks like a box grater. With current family situation I have assumed all kitchen duties.

My wife purchased a box grater. I have never used one. I am familiar with a series of individual pieces of sheet metal, with a small rod frame attached as re-enforcement and making a handle at each end, with perforations on each one, similar to one side of the box grater. They seem to be a thing of the past. On line search leads me to similar items that are smaller than I would like, or very flimsy.

So my question--how does one clean a box grater after use? I used it last nite with the next to largest size openings, to shred carrot and cheese for a salad. I rinsed it well, I thought, with soapy hot water, and clear hot water, using a long handled brush on both inside and out. Today I looked at it and there were tiny bits of carrot on the inside of the smallest holes and bits of cheese still in the corners. My wife tells me I should have done what I did, but more and better. (She has always cut up carrot for salad with a knife. I prefer to grate)

Any other advice? I would really prefer individual graters, each about the same size as one side of the box grater.

snailgate

That's a grate question...

The only thing I can think that might help is to put oil, butter or to use a non-stick cooking spray on the grater prior to using it.

I only ever use the largest holes on the widest size - those little tiny holes on the other side are awful. For many tasks, the other kind of grater that you describe is often used in our house.

But my favorite for cheese is the mouli - I think my mother bought it in 1950something.... this kind of thing:



Edit: and I decided long ago never, never, never to grate carrots. Far better to slice 'em with a sharp knife.

How to clean a box grater: Press bare hand firmly at the top of one side of grater. Run hand firmly down grater. Rings. Repeat on all sides as necessary til clean.

Stick it in the dishwasher?

That's my solution...

Burning Petard wrote:
So my question--how does one clean a box grater after use?

Get someone else to put it in the dishwasher?

Dishwasher is a good answer but I suspect that a little practice with the new item and all will be well.

Yes,
Rubato

Burning Petard wrote:My wife tells me I should have done what I did, but more and better.

That's also the only thing I can think of. (But maybe soak it for a while in warm soapy water first?) I doubt if a dishwasher would do a better (or even as good a) job.

Sink full of soapy water and a handled scrub brush (a/k/a vegetable brush); apply brush thoroughly and vigorously inside and out.  Rinse completely in hot water and allow to air dry.

And what is this thing you call a dishwasher?    In my house, the dishwasher is the same person who makes me my sammich.

-"BB"-

I use a box grater all the time. As with most kitchen cleaning, the key is to rinse immediately after using the dish/pot/utensil, if you want an easy job. Failing that, the soak in water before scrubbing is the best way.

Snailgate,

check out this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Prepworks-Progres ... or+kitchen

It's a set of four flat graters, like a deconstructed box grater.

I have probably the exact same graters you describe; all metal, lay flat in the kitchen drawer, inherited forty years ago from my grandmother. I love 'em.

I looked at this set before posting here. As one reviewer noted, it is small:

"The grater works well for small jobs. When grating potatoes it usually will be necessary to cut them in half, the grating surface is rather small (1 5/8 X 4 5/8)."

But perhaps that is all I need.

On the other hand, Now I can use the iron skillet for nearly everything. My wife hates it, I love it.

snailgate

I read somewhere that grating a cut potato is a good way to clean other stuff stuck in a grater, but I have never tried it.

I can be of no help other than to throw it out and buy a new one.
I sometimes cook, but my better half does the cleaning, she says I don't do it right.
Yes, that was my plan.

oldr_n_wsr wrote:I sometimes cook, but my better half does the cleaning, she says I don't do it right.
Yes, that was my plan.

Sounds like a good plan, but I often get stuck doing both. I think it's that being raised by a feminist thing.

My wife and I both had "old school" moms.

oldr_n_wsr wrote: my better half does the cleaning, she says I don't do it right.
Yes, that was my plan.

Sounds like every teenager I've lived with as an adult. I call it "practiced incompetence".

Maybe LR, but I have also seen control freaks who insist that their way of doing something (whether cleaning, cooking, reading, whatever) is the only way. and those sort of people are tough to do anything with or for. Luckily my wife is not like that, but I've worked for a number of people like that over my career (usually only for short periods of time before I found something else).

And FWIW, I have usually found that those people are much better at telling others how to do their jobs, than in doing their own jobs. Control freaks become experts in anything they don't have to do themselves.

Me too, big RR. My wife does not like the way I do wash, but lately she has been supervising (tells me how to sort, how to set the washer and dryer controls,) while I shuffle the stuff around. She folds it the way she likes when it is done, and then I put it away.

In the kitchen we each have our own way of doing things, and the result, when it is on the table, is all good and that is what counts.

My adult son haunts yard sales and flea markets. He finds what he needs there. I think I am gonna follow his example and keep my eye out for the style grater I want.

I fried a chicken breast for her lunch today, with my iron skillet. The chicken she approved and I cleaned the cast iron skillet my way. It all works out.

snailgate